Probably because I needed a lot of extra sleep we started the day later than normal. The first course of action was to get to the Ebisu stop of the JR line around Shibuya. We first had to take the Ginza Line to Shibuya then switch to the JR Yamanote Line then switch to a bus where we were right at the Peruvian Consulate. The goal was for Daniela to meet the Ambassador to Peru in Japan. I should point out that before we left the room it had started raining. A serious rain. And it didn't stop until after midnight when we got back to the hotel and went to bed. And it stayed a serious rain that whole time. Daniela met with the Ambassador and they spoke about opportunities of sending Japanese travelers to Peru and what could be done to promote it. He was as serious looking man in a suit. Of course he only spoke Spanish but I couldn't help but feel that I was sitting in with the Godfather. I mentioned this to Daniela later in the day and she laughed and agreed readily. He was a nice and positive man though so that was good. He was very helpful and gave Daniela the contact information for the ambassadors in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
After we finished with the ambassador we headed back to the train station. It was past lunchtime so we stopped at a place on the way. It was called Osteria Lucca. They didn't have an English menu but the waitress could explain their lunch set menus to us. We each got a pasta set menu that cost 1000 yen. That's about $10. I got a spaghetti with cream sauce, prosciutto and broccoli and Daniela got a spaghetti with fish in a white sauce that she really loved. My dish was very good too. They started with a fish soup which was nice and a potato salad where the potatoes were mashed which was very interesting as well. They served bread. Then after the food was done we got a coffee or tea each. The food was excellent. Daniela loved the place and the price couldn't be beat really.
We returned to walking back to the train but got hijacked by a restaurant with desserts in the window called Choco Cro. We each had a coffee (Daniela had the Vietnamese coffee which was very strong) and I had an ice cream dessert that had pudding, soft ice cream, hard ice cream (all in vanilla), chocolate sauce, flash frozen strawberries, crumbled cake and breakfast cereal (I think Special K or the equivalent). Daniela had a pastry with ice cream and frozen berries in a berry sauce on top. The desserts were tasty and cost near as much as our lunch.
We got the train station and headed back to the room where we picked up some stuff to be sent to a local Peruvian by Daniela for purposes of promoting tourism to Peru in Japan. That did take us a bit of time but we managed to accomplish it by finding the Asakusa post office which isn't too far from the hotel. I was a bit worried the rain would damage the stuff but the carry on suitcase we were using seemed to protect it all.
After the post office we got back to the room quickly and dropped off the suitcase. We headed straight to Shinjuku by way of the Asakusa line to the Shinjuku line, changing at Higashi-Nihombashi. The goal for Daniela was to find a dollar store which she had the name of one but an area guide told us to go to a different one in the top of the Pepe mall. So we did. We shopped in that store for quite a while then looked around the rest of the floors. Daniela and I managed to buy about $85 of stuff there.
When we finished shopping we walked around a bit and randomly chose a restaurant because a guy caught us and said the place did have an English menu. Inside, I have no idea the place's name, we each had a couple beers. Daniela ordered some yakitori and I guess it would be tontori? I ordered a bowl of stir fry rice with pork and spicy cabbage. The food was excellent but the service a bit slow. The place was very busy. The rice in particular I really liked. Daniela really liked the pork sticks and ordered a couple more. She ordered 2 but somehow we got three which was fine. If the service would have been faster we may have stayed longer. It may have been for the best though because it was getting late.
We had to search a bit to find our way back to the train station but we got back on the Shinjuku line and switched back to the Asakusa line and eventually made it back to the hotel (it was still pouring out). It was late, past midnight, and we called it a night.
The pictures from Japan Day 14 are located here. I admit there are few mostly because of the rain...
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